When I first heard about this case, I thought it had no hope, but it turned out to be a winner, which just goes to show how wrong I am about many things. Independent senator Rex Patrick has won a case before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal which in turn requires Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s department to release secret documents about the workings of national cabinet, rejecting the claim that the entity is a committee of federal cabinet. According to Justice White, “The mere use of the name ‘national cabinet’ does not, of itself, have the effect of making a group of persons using the name a ‘committee of the cabinet’. Nor does the mere labelling of a committee as a ‘cabinet committee’ have that effect.”
It is a victory against Big Government, for transparency. Of course, there may now be an appeal to the Federal Court, and then up the legal ladder.